Youth Dream Team completes epic bike ride up East Coast

Georgia’s Dream Team of teen cyclists and adult coaches returned from a 5-week epic ride during summer’s hottest days with many personal goals achieved.

The youth bike tour covered more than 2,300 miles on the East Coast Greenway and crossed off a bucket list of states from Florida to Maine.

The East Coast Greenway is projected to connect 15 states and 450 cities and towns from Miami to Maine’s Canadian border for walkers and bikers. Because it’s not complete, Dream Team riders — seven teens and five adults — frequently went off-trail.

The route took them down notable routes thoroughfares such as Constitutional Avenue in Washington, D.C., ending in front of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, and through the streets of New York City, riding from Brooklyn to upper Manhattan and Harlem.

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Sixteen-year-old Kaleb, a cyclist from Brunswick, said he felt “like a 5-year-old in a candy store.” Before this trip, he’d never been further north than North Carolina.

Dream Team biker Kayla, 15, also from Brunswick, said the trip helped lift her self-esteem. “It got me out of my comfort zone,” said Kayla, who has juvenile diabetes and had to monitor her blood sugar levels during the daily bike rides.

The Dream Team is a youth cycling program of Bike Ride Across Georgia (BRAG). The multistate ride along the East Coast Greenway celebrated the Dream Team’s 30th anniversary. After starting in Miami Beach, Florida, on June 17, the cyclists reached Bangor, Maine, on July 21, completing the program’s longest, multistate ride.

All expenses — including bikes and gear — were paid for through donations and partnerships.

“Everyone who met us along the trail couldn’t believe what we were doing,” Director Atiba Mbiwan said. “Once they talked to the teen riders, they would write a check. They thought it was such an extraordinary adventure that they wanted to help.”

The BRAG Dream Team started in 1994 as an Atlanta Public Schools program for middle schoolers. Mbiwan took over as volunteer director the next year and, over the years, grew it into a nonprofit statewide program that includes high schoolers.

The program is free to all participants. Teens are equipped with a bike and gear and trained to ride on a long-distance journey. They keep the bike after completing a BRAG summer tour.

Seven experienced youth riders, ages 13 through 17, from Atlanta, Brunswick and Milledgeville, committed to riding the entire East Coast Greenway trip. Nine other teens, including an 11-year-old, joined for part of the trip.

The team cycled between 15 and 55 miles daily, depending on where they stopped for the night. Along the route, they slept in tents, hotels or vacation rentals. Finding a breakfast stop before heading out was always a challenge, Mbiwan said. A 15-passenger bus and a cargo van provided support along the way.

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Dream Team coach and cyclist Anita Collins said the teens attracted attention wherever they went.

“Total strangers wanted to have conversations with them,” said Collins, who has led the Geechee Gullah Dream Team out of Brunswick since 2017. “People helped pay for our meal or give money for the young people to get ice cream. There was a lot of kindness.”

Along the route, they met BRAG and Dream Team alums and other supporters who hosted them in their homes.

Collins said the teens love riding bikes and being with one another. Kaleb said he was never tired after a day of cycling, and the long journey helped him learn patience.

“The group had to be together for over a month and had to learn to get along with each other,” he said.

Mbiwan said safety was paramount and was pleased to report that during the five weeks of riding, no one had sunburn, dehydration, or a nasty spill on their bike.

“There was a lot of danger riding on the roads,” said Collins, “and just to be able to get everybody back home and all of us to be safe is just extraordinary. Every day we were exposed to danger. Some trails had intersections, or the roadway changed from pavement to gravel.”

Mbiwan said it inspired people to see teenagers exert so much daily physical exercise at a time when many want to stay inside on their digital devices.

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The long-distance bicycle journey is a metaphor for life, the director said.

“It teaches lessons about pacing yourself, learning how to shift gears cause you don’t want to hurry through life. You don’t want to be stressed. You want to learn how to rest, eat right, and drink water,” he said.

Other insights were gained through teamwork, helping each other ride effectively and safely, and learning how to interact with people they don’t know.

“Those are all life lessons that will bode you well,” Mbiwan said.

MORE DETAILS

BRAG Dream Team chapters are in Atlanta, Augusta, Brunswick, LaGrange and Milledgeville. A chapter is coming to Americus.

For more: bragdreamteam.org .

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